Members of the public are being urged to have their say on the future of a former church in North Belfast.
Church of the Resurrection first opened on the Cavehill Road in 1980 and was permanently closed in 2008 due to continuing leakage from its roof.
The cost of repair was beyond the resources of Holy Family Parish at that time, as it was in £2 million debt.
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In 2008 and 2013, parish-wide consultations were put forward to decide on the future of the church building ranging from doing nothing, repairing and refurbishing the building, or building a new structure.
Now, the local parish is urging the public to have their say on whether or not the building should be demolished.
In a statement, Holy Family Parish said: "There is evidently a shortfall in the number of priests to serve the parish and people involved within the parish.
"The present active churches of Holy Family and St Therese have catered for the number of parishioners over the years and indeed have also entailed the reduction in the number of masses offered as more seating became available in each mass.
"In the year 2020/2021 the income of the parish reduced by £100,000 (pounds). The safety of the building is also to be taken into consideration as well as its general outlook in the area.
"Recent pressure has come from the insurance company due to safety concerns. The insurers have told us that if there is no progress on demolition, they state they will require the site to be secured and constantly monitored with a maintenance schedule to be undertaken. This will be at a significant cost to the parish."
Remarking on the future of the Church of the Resurrection site, Alliance MLA Nuala McAllister said it offers a "huge opportunity."
She said: "There is a huge opportunity here for this to become a community asset, whether it's used as a community space, social enterprise, youth services, there are a lot of ideas to ensure the space is not left to further ruin.
"It can be an exciting opportunity for the local community to have their say in what replaces this asset and how we can get maximised use out of it.
"I look forward to working with the parish to consult on its future and will emphasise the need to ensure that previous anti-social behaviour that took place within the grounds does not occur, and to do this working alongside local community policy team and Belfast City Council."
The public are urged to complete a response sheet here and deliver it to the parish office before 12 noon on Monday, May 30.
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